Carly Fiorina was not invited to the primetime slot of the first GOP debate earlier last month. Nonetheless she wowed the crowd at the earlier debate, as many experts pegged her as the candidate who won the debate by a large margin.When she managed to lock down a primetime slot for the second GOP debate hosted by CNN this past Wednesday night, Fiorina took the opportunity of speaking on a national stage and again made the most of it. Just how much did Fiorina improve her chances of winning the GOP nomination with her stellar debate performance? Multiple polls taken after the debate on Wednesday show the jump in her popularity to be quite significant. Gravis Marketing a non-partisan research firm conducted a poll which shows that Fiorina has surged all the way to the top of the polls, hanging right with Donald Trump as they both hold 22% percent of the vote. Another poll conducted after the debate by Voter Gravity shows the former Hewlett-Packard CEO leading the field of GOP candidates in the key primary state of New Hampshire, showing that she has the support of 22% of the voters in that state. She holds a four point lead over Donald Trump who is shown to have 18% percent of votes in that same poll.
This begs the question what specifically has led to Carly Fiorina's rapid rise in the polls? What many consider to be two outstanding debate performances on a national stage obviously is the largest contributing factor to her increase in popularity among voters, but what specific moments did voters find so appealing?
A big moment for Fiorina on Wednesday night was when she was asked to address some recent comments Donald Trump had made regarding her physical appearance. She responded stating "I think women all over this country heard very clearly what Mr. Trump said." This drew a large applause from the crowd who seemed to love the fact that someone had finally fired back at Trump who is so famous for his bombastic remarks, in particular due to the fact that he is on record on multiple occasions referring to women in a manner that many would consider to be far more than suspect. Another key moment for Fiorina in Wednesday's debate was when she responded to a question regarding the legalization of marijuana. She agreed with many of the other candidates saying that this should be an issue handled on a state by state basis. She did make a point to say that "Pot today is not the same pot that Jeb Bush smoked 40 years ago.", warning of the dangers of drug addiction by citing a personal loss in her family to drug addiction.
No one can say what exactly has led to her rise in popularity, one thing is for sure Carly Fiorina is not going anywhere.
